Those who know me would probably testify otherwise, but let's put things into perspective: I haven't taken any I.Q tests of late, but I'm sure it's slightly above average. But there are, there most definitely are many, many others whose are way higher than mine. Tales abound of child geniuses, kids who've had PhDs as young as twelve. I'm eighteen and still have a year and a half of high school ahead of me. Leonardo da Vinci, estimated to have been the most intelligent man to have lived was a master of the arts and sciences, decades ahead of his contemporaries. I am but a blind, bumbling fool in comparison to him.
Let's take into account the sum total of man's collected wisdom and knowledge. There are eight odd billion functioning minds on the planet today, and billions more have flared for but a moment and ceased to exist. Can we possibly calculate how much knowledge has passed through these minds, passed on to eager, young disciples or committed into writing? How much more has been lost, descending to the grave with its owner?
Taking it further, how much more is there to be known? The universe is infinitely vast, and we occupy an insignificant rock, the third from an insignificant sun in an unfashionable part of the universe (with apologies to Douglas Adams). How much knowledge, how many mysteries does the universe hold? How much of it do we, the human race, possess?
These are questions to ponder about, questions which the human race needs to keep in mind. Ultimately, who has the right to call himself smart, to lord it over others because he is intellectually superior? I certainly do not.
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